"Simon Moores of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is a fixture on the graphite scene, and also comments frequently on the cobalt and lithium spaces. Resource Investing News was lucky enough to catch him at Cambridge House International's 2015 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference to get an update on all three commodities.
He commented on whether he sees low oil and gas prices impacting the electric vehicle market, also touching on the likelihood of Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) using natural graphite at its soon-to-be-constructed gigafactory. "Whilst natural graphite has cost advantages and has a lower carbon footprint to the synthetic material, at the end of the day they need to get the raw material first and foremost, and if there isn't enough supply at the right price, then Tesla will have to use synthetic," he said.
In closing, he touched on what investors can expect from graphite, lithium and cobalt in 2015. "What I would expect is more focus on the supply chain situation," he said, noting that the emergence of battery megafactories will put pressure on supply of the metals. "Whether that will turn into investment for these companies is another question — usually people are sluggish to react. Investors, the buyers of minerals, they only react when they see a specific problem, and they generally don't react before that problem."
He commented on whether he sees low oil and gas prices impacting the electric vehicle market, also touching on the likelihood of Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) using natural graphite at its soon-to-be-constructed gigafactory. "Whilst natural graphite has cost advantages and has a lower carbon footprint to the synthetic material, at the end of the day they need to get the raw material first and foremost, and if there isn't enough supply at the right price, then Tesla will have to use synthetic," he said.
In closing, he touched on what investors can expect from graphite, lithium and cobalt in 2015. "What I would expect is more focus on the supply chain situation," he said, noting that the emergence of battery megafactories will put pressure on supply of the metals. "Whether that will turn into investment for these companies is another question — usually people are sluggish to react. Investors, the buyers of minerals, they only react when they see a specific problem, and they generally don't react before that problem."
"Eric Wesoff reports on very interesting development in China. Boston Power is building its own Megafactory to produce lithium batteries and even the super cheap urban EV for ... $8,000. It will be the game changer for the booming market for EVs in China, where EV sales are up 320% last year. We have discussed LG Chem Megafactory before and now you can appreciate more recent move of our strategic partner Ganfeng Lithium. China is building very fast its new strategic industry - electric cars. International Lithium is the part of the vertically integrated Lithium business with Ganfeng Lithium in China."
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